The present invention relates to sports gloves and, more particularly, gloves for facilitating the grasping of sports equipment. p In many sports activities, it is desirable for the participants to utilize specially designed gloves which facilitates the user's grasping an instrument which is an integral part of the sport. For example, Stroud U.S. Pat. No. 2,877,465 discloses a golf glove having a palm portion fitted with a hook made from a flat piece of steel. The hook is arranged on the palm so that it engages the handle of a golf club at a preferred angle relative to the glove, so that the club shaft is at the correct angle to the user's hand. Swanson U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,903 discloses a golf glove having a protruding rib formed across the palm portion and angled such that it lies against the handle of a golf club to be grasped. The rib is oriented so that the golf club handle is held at the proper angle relative to the glove and user's hand.
Rietz U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,831 discloses a water skiing glove having a strap of material attached to the palm of the glove and shaped to extend from a point rearwardly of the wrist opening, longitudinally of the palm, and terminate at the outer joints of the three middle fingers of the glove. The strap is stitched to the glove about its entire periphery, save for the portion protruding rearwardly of the wrist opening.
The strap includes a transverse, protruding rib and the end adjacent to the wrist opening also includes a wrist strap. The wrist strap is fastened to the main strap by stitching and has a free end fitted with a patch of hook material that engages a complementary patch of loop material attached to the main strap. The glove facilitate the grasping of a water ski tow bar in that the rib bears against the tow bar and thus transfers a portion of the tensile forces exerted by the tow bar to the glove and wrist strap, thereby reducing the gripping force required to grasp the tow bar.
Gloves are also used in the sport of weight lifting, and Castillo U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,495 discloses a glove which facilitates performing weight lifting presses. This glove includes a plurality of open-ended stub fingers and a palm portion having a tapered wedge extending from the heel of the hand inwardly toward the inside of the palm. The wedge purportedly allows the hand to be aligned relatively straight with respect to the ulna and radius when pressing.
However, such gloves do not aid the participant in performing a dead lift, in which a barbell is grasped with both hands and lifted from the floor while the arms of the participant are kept straight. Since a dead lift usually involves the greatest weight handled by a particular weight lifter for any lift requiring the weight lifter's hands to bear the entire load, quite often the upper limit of weight to be dead lifted is determined by the inherent strength of the weight lifter's grip, rather than the back and leg muscles, which are the muscles used to raise the weight from the floor.
Accordingly, there is a need for a sports glove which bears some of the weight lifted by a participant in a dead lift, thereby transferring a portion of the downward force of a barbell from the fingers of a participant to the palm, wrists, and arms. There is also a need for a sports glove which is capable of transferring the tensile force exerted by other types of weight lifts, as well as other sports implements, from the hand to the wrist of the user.